A Guardian's Affection
by CallMeOptimus
Summary: It was her day off from work. An hour or two of Elder Tale wouldn't hurt, right? Now trapped in her new reality, a female Guardian must survive the Apocalypse. Along the way, she meets up with familiar faces, new friends, and potential enemies. She knew she had to stay strong, but she didn't account for a certain Guardian easing his way into her heart. Naotsugu/OC.
1. Welcome to Elder Tale

Finally decided to do it. Like with most of my favorite characters, it was love at first sight. I love Naotsugu's character, he's so goofy, it's hard not to love him. Who doesn't love a man in a suit of armor, right?

Anyways, this may or may not evolve into a love story, who knows. But for now, it's just be a growing friendship kind of deal.

I have also drew what this OC looks like and if you want to look, check out my profile and click on the CallmeOptimus deviantArt link. I **strongly** suggest looking at it because I was lazy when it came to describing how the armor looks, the designs, and where the colors are placed. The OC was made just for this story.

SO LOOK AT IT. I WANT ALL OF YOU TO LOOK AT IT.

So I don't own Log Horizon, just the OCs.

SMALL EDIT: It's been a while since I made a new story and forgot about the whole image uploader thing. So if you're lazy and don't wanna go to my profile to get the picture link, just look at the story cover instead.

ANOTHER SMALL EDIT CUZ I'M DUMB AND ISN'T USE TO IMAGE MANAGER: Please do go to my profile and get the link. The cover for the story doesn't show her entire suit of armor. Only from the waist up. The original picture was too big and cut off her head so I had to fix that. I'm dumb. Sorry.

* * *

"You've got to be_ kidding _me…"

A young woman sat on the moss-covered earth as she observed her surroundings. Her _familiar_ surroundings. And familiar is a _bad_ sense. To her left and right, there were more confused people. Or should she say, _players_? Most of them had the same look as her on their faces, while others were in a complete rage, blaming the nearest person or thing.

She wanted to know:

_Where am I?_

But deep down, she knew _exactly_ where she was. It's the fact that she didn't want to accept her fate yet. Perhaps this was some sort of bad dream. Surely something like this only happens in silly children's movies and novels…right?

Just moments ago, she recalled sitting in front of her laptop at home with her knees pulled up to her chest. This was her form of 'down time'. She was given the day off from work today so she decided to spend it by sleeping in and then lounging around her apartment. However, she found herself bored after a while, so she decided to work on some documents for her work. As a Computer Science Engineer, she was required from her department at work to do some detailed research about programs and software that could be used in upcoming projects around Japan, and even America.

"So this is how I spend my day off…working." She sighed to herself as the sound of her typing filled the quiet room. Her thoughts were interrupted with a loud _buzzing_ sound coming from the side of her desk. Someone had texted her. Reaching for the phone, she flipped it open and looked at the screen. She had received a message from a fellow co-worker and a good friend.

**Message from Ao:**

**Heard you got the day off. Wanna play some ET today? I heard the new Novasphere Pioneers expansion pack is coming out some time today. Well?**

She leaned back into her chair, putting some actual thought into her decision. By _ET, _surely Ao had meant _Elder Tale_. It had been nearly a year since she had stopped playing. Part of the reason was due to work needing her full and undivided attention. The other part was the fact that after years of playing, she finally finished the main story line and maxed out her levels. It took about 6 years in total for her to find herself becoming bored with the game. She was introduced to the game a while back, thanks to a couple of classmates from her college computer programming classes. She was a fan of MMORPGs and thought this popular game would be worth trying. For the first year or so, she played with one of her really close friends, _Yuugo_. After a few unfortunate events and meeting new friends, she parted ways with Yuugo and played with smaller parties from her computer science classes. The need to be in a party slowly died down and she began doing quests on her own. Shortly after adventuring by herself, she met up with another loner, _Ryuuji_. He became her new partner and vice versa. They formed their own small alliance with each other and leveled up together.

Years passed and they both began to log on less and less. One day, they both happened to log on at the same time and Ryuuji informed her that he was joining a guild, despite the fact that he was hardly ever on. He offered her to join the guild with him, seeing that she exceed the level 85 requirement the guild had asked for. She never bother asking about what guild it was but it didn't matter. She wasn't interested. She admitted that college work, graduation, and searching for a job was consuming a good portion of her time and life. She said that she had fun play the game and leveling up her character, but now, with nothing else to do in the game besides venture, collect rare items, make money, she decided it was time for a break. Her long term partner understood and wished her the best of luck in life before they went down their own life paths.

The girl blinked back into reality and realized that she had spaced out. She looked at her phone again, a blank message still on her screen. Without a second thought, she decided to reply back.

**Sure, I heard of the new expansion. Idk when it's being released today, but I'll log on now.**

She hit 'send' on her dial pad and closed all of the document files on her laptop before opening up Elder Tale. She logged on and was currently staring at her character. With a few taps on her keyboard, she opened up her friends list to see if Ao was already online. She quickly found out that he wasn't.

An audible sigh escaped her lips as she made her character walk back and forth on her screen.

Before anything else could happen, her entire world went black.

…

And then she woke up _here._

This was, without a doubt in her mind, _Akihabara_. The largest, and most well-known city on _Elder Scroll's_ Japanese server. This is where she spent most of her time as a beginner when she first got the game. With the help of her college classmates was she able to finally venture out into the world.

"_This is definitely Akiba…but…it seems much more than that now."_ She thought to herself as she watched the blue sky stretch farther than she recalled in the game.

She grew tired of sitting on the ground and decided to stand up. As quickly as that idea popped into her head, she immediately fell over face first into the ground.

"Seriously…" She groaned to herself as she raised her, now, dirt covered face from the ground beneath her. She felt like the wind was knocked out of her. This time, she slowly raised herself up until she was sure that she was stable on her feet. The sound of metal rubbing against and hitting metal filled her ears. She had nearly forgotten about her armor that dressed almost her entire body from head to toe. She also realized the giant shield she had strapped on her back, which was probably the source of her winded state when she first fell.

Her armor covered areas that included her torso, hips, shoulders, upper arms, forearms, hands, shins, and feet. Underneath the armor, she wore a simple, navy blue, sleeveless turtleneck piece. Accompanying that was a pair of black, skin tight pants that stopped a few inches above her knees. Her stomach area, lower back, elbows, knees, and fingers were the only parts of her body naked from any means of armor. The color of her suit of armor ranged from a dark turquoise color to light blue decorations with black trimmings around certain pieces of armor. The color scheme of her shield also matched her armor.

With a sigh, she blew a misplaced strand of her chocolate colored hair out of her slate-gray eyes. She wasn't sure what to do now. Hell, she wasn't even sure how to access her menu to try and log out of this madness.

"This sucks!" She growled and slammed an open palm into the center of her forehead. A small _ping_ sound rung in her ears and it startled her. Before she had time to freak out, she noticed some sort of screen that projected itself in front of her.

"_What's this…"_ It looked exactly like the menu. She reached out to try and touch one of the options and it worked. Now she was getting somewhere. With a small, satisfied hum, she scanned the variety of options before her eyes landed on the 'log out' selection. She tapped it once and it beeped before displayed a red 'x' over the option, obviously meaning her access was denied. She narrowed her eyes at the display screen and began to furiously tap on the 'log out' button. She was only rewarded with the constant beeping noise and the failure to log out. She slumped her shoulders in defeat.

"_Now this really sucks…"_

Straightening herself out, she decided to look through more of her options. All of her items were there and so was her gold. That was a good sign then, at least she had money if it even came down to her having to buy food from this place. Then she noticed her 'friends list' and she immediately felt her mood brighten up. Maybe Ao was on and she didn't have to be alone. She scrolled through the list of people and a lot of their names weren't lit up, which probably meant that they weren't online. Only a small handful of name were actually lit up. However, Ao's name wasn't one of them. Her bad mood instantly came back.

"_That moron bothered me to log on and didn't even log on himself?!" _She was furious with her co-worker. It's because of him that she was stuck here.

"-_PANTIES~!_" A sudden outburst scared her out of her thoughts and she looked around for the source. She only saw birds flying away in the distance, probably startled by the yelling as well.

"…what the heck was that about…?" She looked in the sky and decided to shake it off. Some things are better left unanswered.

* * *

So you guys thought I was joking when I said I was too lazy to fully describe the armor in detail, huh?


	2. The Enchanter, Guardian, and Assassin

This chapter is pretty long, seeing that it was originally going to be 2 separate chapters. However, I decided against it due to the fact that the chapters would've been incredibly short.

Anyways, Shiroe and friends are introduced in this chapter. If you haven't noticed, I'm basing this story around the anime more so than the light novel. But I will pull out a few facts from the light novel if I see fit. Like Akatsuki's stats that you'll see later in this chapter. And if you haven't done so already, check my profile for a link to the character design of this story's OC. Yes, that's her on the cover of the story but it only shows the waist up while the drawing from my deviantArt shows a full body reference. I drew that picture just for this story.

Please enjoy!

* * *

She stood there in the middle of Akiba, arms folded across her metal-plated chest. She was observing the area, as well as the other players. Maybe she could find someone who figured out a way to get out of this place. After about 5 minutes, she grew tired of watching people complain and argue with one another.

_"This is hopeless…"_ Standing around and waiting for something to happen seemed to be taking a while, so she began to walk around trying to find any leads. She reminded herself to walk slowly and to take small careful steps. Or else she'd end up on the ground again. She was still unsure why walking felt so much different here. Isn't walking supposed to be the same everywhere?

She was too busy watching her feet move across the ground to notice what was in front of her. Her armored body rammed into a solid object and the impact caused her to fall backwards onto her rear. A small bit of anger swelled inside of her as she realized that she was on the ground _again_.

_"Maybe I was never meant to walk here! Maybe I should just sit on my ass all day and wait for a miracle to happen!" _She ruffled her own hair in agitation, not bothering to look at what she ran into. Or rather, _who_.

"O-Oi, sorry there, I thought you would've seen me walking. I guess not though, huh?" A voice called out from above, causing her to cease her mental fit with herself and to look up. "Here." The armored man offered her a helping hand and without a word, she took it.

This man stood at nearly 6 feet in height with grayish colored spiked hair, a lighter tint highlighting the front. He wore a suit of armor from chest to toe with a large shield covering his back. As goofy grin was plastered onto his lips, he placed a hand on her shoulder after raising her to her feet. She was able to see his stats clearly now.

_Name: Naotsugu  
Class: Guardian  
Class Level: 90  
HP: 13295  
MP: 6613_

_"Another Guardian, huh? I should've guessed by the armor." _She thought to herself as she stared at the man.

"There ya go." He chuckled.

"Oh, u-um, thank you." She replied with a small, unsure, smile. Heat rose to her cheeks as they turned a nice shade of pink. "I should apologize though, I-I wasn't watching where I w-was going." She turned her head away from the man, hiding the blush. "I was too busy watching my stupid feet to make sure I didn't fall again…" She muttered under her breathe.

"Oh, then someone decided to make their character taller than what they are in real life huh?" The man started laughing and this caused the girl to snap her head at him, the blush growing bigger from embarrassment.

"W-What…? How do you-"

"Shiroe." The man said with a big smile as another man stepped out from behind him. This blue haired man wore a white cloak and a pair of circular glasses.

"Ah, Naotsugu, don't tease – …Kami-san?" Shiroe looked at the girl with 'surprise' written all over his face.

"Sh-Shiro-san?" She girl stammered before immediately jumping to hug the other man. "A familiar face! I finally found a familiar face!" She cried with joy.

Off to the side, a short, purple haired girl glared at the woman hugging Shiroe. It was obvious that they knew each other, but she shouldn't be jumping on him like that. The man in the armor suit seemed confused for the moment, but figured his questions would be answered after their little reunion.

"C-Calm down, Kami-san." Shiroe said with an uneasy voice. "It seems like you got caught up in this mess too then." She girl released the blue haired Enchanter and nodded.

"Yeah, a co-worker of mine told me to log on and join him to experience the new expansion." She sighed. "And here I am, experiencing it. _By myself._" She growled her last statement.

"What happened? Did the two of you get separated?" Shiroe blinked at her, unsure of her intended meaning.

"Tch, no." She spat. "The idiot told me to log on and never logged on himself."

"Ah, how unfortunate then."

"You're telling me…" She sighed through her mouth. Before Shiroe could ask another question, the other taller man spoke up.

"So…you two know each other?" Both Shiroe and the woman turned to face the armored man.

"Oh, forgive me." Shiroe said with a small bead of sweat running down from his temple. "Naotsugu-san, this is Kami. Kami-san, Naotsugu." He then turned to the smaller girl standing near the one name Naotsugu. "Akatsuki-san, Kami. Kami-san, Akatsuki." After Shiroe was done with the brief introductions, Naotsugu stuck his hand out once more for the girl to take, but this time he merely wanted a handshake.

"Hi Kami-san, the name's Naotsugu." He greeted as she took his hand and they shook on it. "I don't like to beat around the bush much so I think you're pretty cute." He said with another goofy grin. "Let's be sure to get along." He said with a wink and shot her a big thumbs up.

"O-Oh. Uh…thank you, Naotsugu-san…how…forward of you." She wasn't sure how to react to his comment but she did feel her cheeks heat up again. In a blink of an eye, Naotsugu was on the ground and the smaller girl named Akatsuki stood in his place.

"He's an idiot and we don't know what's wrong with him. I took the liberty of kneeing the rude man in the face." She said in the bluntest tone. The older woman was taken aback by this scene and questioned if the little girl posed a threat. "I'm Akatskui, pleasure to meet you Kami-san." She said with a polite bow and Kami saw her stats.

_Name: Akatsuki  
Class: Assassin  
Class Level: 90  
HP: 9873  
MP: 9771_

_"An Assassin…maybe I _should_ be worried about her…" _

"N-Nice to meet you too, Akatsuki-san." She quickly bowed in return, not wanting to be in the same boat as Naotsugu, who was complaining about Akatsuki 'doing it again'.

"I noticed your name says 'Nakami', not 'Kami'. Is it a nickname?" Naotsugu had asked while rubbing his nose.

"Ah, it's just a nickname. Just ask him." Kami jerked a thumb towards Shiroe. "I didn't like it at first but I got used to it, so either one works."

"But Kami-san, I don't know how many times you have covered for me in class to save my grade. Like a goddess watching over me. Surely you deserved the nickname." He put two hands up as he claimed his defense.

"That's why you don't pull all-nighters to finish homework the day before it's due when it was given to you a week in advance, Shiro-san." Kami said with a loud sigh.

"And I haven't answered your question yet, Naotsugu-san, but I'm sure you already figured out the answer." Shiroe turned to Naotsugu, who was nodding as his arms were folded over his chest.

"Is she your girlfriend? Or like, an ex?" Naotsugu said with a simple tilt of his head. This caused both the Enchanter and female Guardian to blush in response, both clearly taken back by the accusation. Akatsuki let out a small growl in dissatisfaction, which caught the older woman's attention.

"N-No! We were classmates." Shiroe said with a quick shake of his head. "We met a few years ago in an engineering class. We were randomly partnered up too for the rest of the year and eventually, we became friends rather than just lab partners."

"Wha? Really now?" Naotsugu looked over at the woman with a surprised look. "So you're an engineer too?"

"Mhmm. Computer Science Engineer, but essentially, an engineer overall." She nodded her head.

"However, Kami-san is a year or so older than me. She graduated about a year ago." The Enchanter added in and Kami only nodded in agreement.

"Ahh, I see, I see." Naotsugu said with a smile. "I would've been surprised if you did say you two were lovers. 'Cause that means you hid this pretty thing from me!" Naotsugu snickered at the two 'lovers' reactions.

"If I did hide her from you, obviously there was a good reason behind it." Shiroe mumbled under his breath. "And right now is a perfect example of it."

"I was just curious." Naotsugu raised both hands in the air in defense.

"Right." Shiroe sighed heavily while pinching the bridge of his nose, slightly lifting his glasses in the process. "Anyways…" He turned to Kami, who was currently watching Akatsuki out of the corner of her eye.

_"She scares me…she keeps giving me that look like she's going to pounce on me…" _The woman observed quietly, with a slightly worried look on her face.

"Kami-san?" Shiroe interrupted her thoughts and she snapped her head in his direction.

"O-Oh, yes?" She asked.

"It seems that you'll be on your own if we were just to leave you. If I'm correct, you're still not in a guild." He stated the obvious but the small comment made a small frown appear on his friend's face. "So, would you like to come along with us?" He showed her a small affectionate smile of his own and Kami's frown quickly disappeared.

"Yes." She said with a giant smile and single nod of her hear.

"Don't think I didn't see that frown, Kami-san. You really think I would leave you by yourself?" The blue-haired Enchanter chuckled and caused the woman to pout.

"Maybe…" She murmured in response.

"You shouldn't worry! Like I would let nasty-glasses here leave you by yourself." The taller man quickly wrapped an arm around the female Guardian's shoulders and brought her close to his side in a friendly manner. "You're with us now." He flashed her another goofy grin that forced a small blush out of her.

"A-Ah, thank you Naotsugu-san." She said in a squeak. However, the friendly gesture made her feel welcomed.

_"Perhaps traveling with them will be a fun experience…" _Nakami smiled to herself at the thought. They were certainly an interesting group of individuals, Nakami noted as she watched the Guardian get kneed in the face by the tiny Assassin girl again in a comedic scene. Shiroe only watched with a small shake of his head before he turned to the new Guardian of the group.

"Shall we get going then?" He offered politely. Kami smiled in response and nodded her head in agreement.

_"This new reality won't be as bad…now that I'm with them."_

* * *

A few notes:

- For those not familiar with Japanese terms, _Kami _translates to: a divine being or a god.

- And before anyone thinks I'm making her a Mary-Sue because of her background information with Shiroe and whatnot. NO. Just stop. I gave her that background **because **of the timeline set in Log Horizon. It is set in the year 2018 and just a fun fact, I too will be one year out of college by that time. And I _was _majoring in Computer Science Engineering (but I switched out for personal reasons (aka I'm stupid and suck at Calculus)). So perhaps it's a little bit of a (future) self-insert kind of thing. I definitely don't see her as a Mary-Sue right now. If you think so and don't like it, then by all means, no one is asking you to read it.

- I forgot to add why I chose her to be a Guardian in the first chapter. But I briefly explained it in the drawing description on deviantArt if anyone bothered to check it out. For those who didn't, let me enlighten you:

Her class type was influenced by my own personal tastes when it comes to RPGs. I was never a big fan of magic-based classes or classes completely based upon defense with little to no offensive tactics. So that crosses out the 3 Mage classes as well as the 3 Healer classes. I like a good fight, even though I sometimes die a lot so of course I want from offensive based attacks rather than defense. For example, in Skyrim (I'm a nerd), all of my magic skills are pretty much the same as when I first started the game because I never worked towards leveling them up. While my one-handed skill is one of the highest levels in my skills list. My sneak is at a perfect 100 but I didn't want to make Nakami an assassin, it didn't seem fitting. She was almost made a Bard, since my whole high school career was based on music and junk. But the Guardian class really appealed to me because I liked the fact that they have a high amount of HP. Which is exactly what I would prefer in an RPG because I sometimes just charge into battle and forget to heal myself. I also like the armor aspect.

I think that's all I needed to clarify...sorry for the lengthy explanation. There shouldn't be anymore in the future chapters but it's not a promise.


	3. The Knight and the Princess

This chapter was sitting in my documents for nearly a month now and I forgot to upload it here. My bad...

I can't believe the first season of the anime series is already over. What am I suppose to do with my life until the second season starts?

Anyways, please enjoy the third chapter!

* * *

A new day began in the world of _Elder Tale_. By the time the older Guardian woman was introduced the day before, the sky had grown dark so the group was forced to rest up shortly afterwards. They found a bit of difficultly when it came to sleeping in this world. It wasn't as simple as logging out for the night to sleep. In their current situation, they had to sleep as if it were real life. No logging out whatsoever.

The morning started off rather slowly with each member of the small party still getting accustomed to their new lives and routines. Nakami was in the process of putting on her armor, excluding the heavy metal boots that she was slept in. She struggled with this new process seeing as she never had to deal with this kind of situation in real life. Back when this was just a game, equipping items was as simple as a few clicks on the menu screen. Now she actually had to _dress_ herself.

"C'monnnn…" The female Guardian groaned as she struggled with some of the latches and straps on her chest piece.

"Need a hand there?" A voice asked from behind. Kami turned her head slightly over her shoulder to see Naotsugu sitting on a large log, already dressed in his armor.

"Please…" She sighed in defeat. If he could show her how to do it, then that would make her life so much easier. A chuckle erupted from his mouth as he stood up and strolled over to his new female Guardian companion.

"You were pretty cute when I was watching you fumble around with your armor for the past 6 minutes." He laughed and Kami's face turned a deep shade of red. "Arms up." He directed her as he was slightly kneeling by her right side.

"Th-Then why didn't you offer help sooner?" She spat, still embarrassed by his comment. She did as she was told and raised her arms in the air so Naotsugu had access to the armor on her sides.

"Like I said, it was cute." He smiled before going to work at the straps on her armor. "See here? Just take this and loop it around this piece here. Now snake the end under this piece and then ya pull it tight!" He demonstrated on the right side of her chest piece with ease. "Give it a try on the other side." He said as he stood up to his full height and crossed his arms over his chest. She glanced down to the left side of her body and tried repeating what she witnessed Naotsugu do. She found herself doing something wrong as the straps weren't keeping taut after multiple tugs.

"Wahh!" She whined as she quickly grew frustrated. "Apparently it's a different process compared to watching you from a different angle…" She said in a slightly defeated voice, staring at the armor straps in her hands. "How the heck did you manage to figure this out already?" She glanced over at the taller man, who was laughing at her attempts.

"I just figured it out this morning. It was no different than taking it off. It's just reversed." He smiled before walking over to the other side of the woman. "Take the strap in your right hand. See the loop? Thread it through there and then take the end, bring it under that piece, and pull." He instructed with small finger motions. Kami slowly followed his simple set of instructions. With a satisfying pull, her armor grew tight around her upper body and a happy expression grew on her face.

"Ah-ha! I did it!" She exclaimed in joy, which caused Naotsugu to let out a fit of laughter. "Thank you, Naotsugu-san." She gave the man a warm smile.

"Anything for you, Kami-san!" He replied with a smile of his own and a big thumbs up. "I've been meaning to ask, why a Guardian? I don't see many female Guardians." He quickly changed the subject as he sat himself back in his original spot on the log.

"Well." Kami began as she continued to put on the rest of her armor. "I like action."

"Action?" Naotsugu repeated the word with a small tilt of his head.

"Mhmm." She hummed in response. "I prefer more offense than defense. I didn't want to be a mage or a healer since their attacks aren't the best suited for big battles if you're playing solo." She admitted with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "Besides, Guardians have a pretty high HP too. I definitely need something like that if I'm playing by myself. I tend to forget to heal myself every now and then during dungeon raids…"

"Really now? So being a tank doesn't bother you?" Naotsugu asked. "I thought most girls wouldn't like the idea of taking a beating for the team."

"Hmm, I guess. I never really played with large parties though. Just a couple of small ones with a few guys from my college classes." Kami explained as she put on her last gauntlet and took a seat next to Naotsugu. "Most of them were Swashbucklers, for the two weapon perk. They did make me the tank on a couple of occasions but it wasn't necessary most of the time since they all had higher stats than me."

"Ahh." He nodded in understanding.

"But other than that, I usually played with a single partner or just by myself. It took me a long time to max out my stats." She sighed, slumping over in her seat so her elbows met the top of her knees.

"Well, I think it's cool. You being a Guardian." He patted her on the back. "When we fight, you can be like…my shadow! Of course I'm not gonna let you take brunt of the battle. But certainly you can come to my rescue when I'm in a pinch."

"How chivalrous of you, Naotsugu-san." Kami let out a small chuckle. "But I can hold my own too, y'know. Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean I'm completely defenseless." She said with a stern poke to the male Guardian's metal-plated chest.

"Easy, easy!" He laughed, bringing his hands up in a defensive manner. "I believe you. But as a man, I'm not going to let you take most of the hits if I have something to say about it. Just think of me as…your knight in shining armor! And you're my princess…in shining armor!" He said with a proud smile.

"Knight in shining armor, huh?" The woman laughed at the man's statement, clearly amused. One would've taken it as flirting but Kami was use to silly comments made by the opposite gender. Her older brother being her prime example. "Just don't think of me as the weakest link of the group and I'll be your armor wearing princess." She said with an amused smile.

"Deal!" He laughed and she joined in with him.

"So where's Shiro-san? And Akatsuki?" Kami asked as she noticed it had been just the two of them for the longest time.

"Shiro-san just went for a walk, something about needing to think about some stuff. And the chibi shortly disappeared after he left…actually, she's probably with him. Well, more like watching over him. She's kind of a hardcore role player." He said with a small wave of his hand.

"Oh?" That caught the woman's attention. "How so?"

"Ah, well, before we ran into you, or when you ran into me, Shiro-san and I met up with her. She was playing the game as a dude so when the Apocalypse happened, she was stuck inside a man's body. She was looking for Shiro so she could ask him to give her an appearance changing potion. Of course Shiro did and didn't want any means of payment from her. So she swore her loyalty to him for saving her from her situation. She often calls him 'my lord'." Naotsugu shook his head. "Pretty hardcore huh?"

"I'll say." She chuckled. "But that sort of explains why she was giving me some dirty looks yesterday."

"Was she?" He sounded completely unaware of the small Assassin's actions yesterday concerning the new female of the group.

"I guess it's because she's protective of Shiro-san. Maybe she thought I was a potential threat or something. But either way…I was almost certain that she was going to attack me by the end of the night. Which didn't happen, thank goodness."

"Lucky, I'm her main target all the time." He grumbled and folded his arms over his chest in a child-like manner.

"I bet you deserve it." Kami snickered at the man's actions.

"Kami-san, you traitor!" Naotsugu whined. "You're supposed to be on my side!"

After a few minutes of the two Guardians poking fun at each other and sharing a few laughs, Shiroe and Akatsuki emerged from the nearby forest. Since they came out together, it probably meant that Shiroe had found out that Akatsuki was following him.

"It's good to see you two are getting along." Shiroe commented with a smile. "Well, c'mon, let's head to the NPC vendor stalls and see what we can find there. Perhaps someone might have some information to share about what happened yesterday."

With that, Shiroe had lead the group further into the heart of Akihabara, where most of the NPCs have vendor stalls set up.

* * *

Sorry if it's a bit short. Just a little bit of bonding time between the two Guardians.

I hope I'm getting Naotsugu's personality down. He seems like the silly (some times perverted), older brother type, right?


End file.
